Women of the Grey- The Complete Trilogy

by Carol James Marshall

Waving them off and standing up, Superior Mother went outside The Grey to their tallest of hidden towers, wanting to grieve alone. Lisa was gone to her now. She had committed the biggest crime among The Grey—the murder of one’s own. There was no saving her daughter now. Superior Mother wished her daughter was more. Wished her daughter’s voice was strong and committed to The Grey. It never was, and it never would be. Superior Mother wanted Lisa to be a hammer. The one to hit all these Mothers on the head, to make them behave, make them understand, but Lisa was not a hammer, nor a nail. Lisa was just Lisa, another fail of The Grey. Lately the amount of fails succeeded the successes. Superior Mother was starting to feel as if her ship was doing down.

  Grabbing the rail, Superior Mother pushed herself as far as she could forward to hear Lisa—to find just a suggestion that what she knew to be true, wasn’t. There was nothing but a jumble of chaos from Lisa. Fragmented thoughts that lingered with anger and some regret. Her Lisa was gone.

  “Superior Mother, do you need anything? You seemed out of sorts with your tea.” Superior Mother’s assistant was a candy-laced-with-poison type of woman. Never a gesture of faith without a slap.

  “I’m good, thank you…just looking up at these stars and wondering when we will finally go home.” Superior Mother looked at her assistant with the knowledge that one day one of them would kill the other.

  “That, Superior mother, would be lovely….” Her assistant left, but Superior Mother felt that she always had eyes on her, even when she wasn’t in the room.

  In her bedroom, Superior Mother did not mourn for Lisa. She had always known that human mother-daughter relationship was never going to happen. They would never plant a garden, have lunch or simply sit and chat as human mothers did with their daughters. These things were best left for the make-believe of TV that most women of The Grey watched while on missions. That didn’t bother Superior Mother. She was the leader and must adhere to the elders’ ways no matter how intensely cruel and ridiculous it all seemed. It was time and time again that Superior Mother inwardly questioned the elders. Why would they choose to do these things, this way? The secrets, the deception, the hidden rooms where a discipline was handed out that flirted with an arcane cruelty that caused the most wicked of them to flinch? Superior Mother hid her flinch and did as was expected of her.

  She made a fist, then let it go, made it again, and let it go. What was the worst for her, the biggest smack in the face was that, in her existence, she would never have that moment of overwhelming pride when it came to Lisa. Superior Mother made the tightest fist she could, squeezing her fingers until her nails dug into her palm, then let it go in one blink. She said her mental goodbye to her one and only daughter.

  Deep within The Grey, two Mothers argued over who fed Sunny last. “I fed her two hours ago.”

  “Well, that’s bologna. I fed her thirty minutes ago, and she was ravenous.”

  “She’s always ravenous…she’s a bottomless pit…” One Mother, tossing her hands in the air, grabbed the bottle, put it on a holder at the very end of a very long stick. The appearance of the Mother marching through two metal doors and sticking the stick through a hole to Sunny was cartoon comical if the someone watching did not notice what was in the bottle. The stick bounced and both Mothers grasped it, trying their best to hold it steady.

  “She’s awful…just dreadful…” Mother 12 blew her breath out towards her face. Both Mothers closed their eyes but held on tightly.

  “What’s to become of her?”

  “Better question, what’s to become of us if she ever gets out?” The stick broke with a loud crack and the end of it shot back out the hole, scratching both Mothers’ arms, then smacking Mother 52 in the face. It hit the floor with a loud clank.

  “She’s dreadful…” said both Mothers simultaneously—each of them pitting the other.

  Superior Mother watched the monitors that were on Sunny with great interest and tremendous distaste. Sunny would either ruin or rule the women of The Grey. She did not know which it would be. We are all the same and none different, muttered Superior Mother as she squeezed her toes together. Not true, not true…

  Superior Mother’s assistant slid up next to her watching the monitors, pretending to shiver. “What is she? She doesn’t… isn’t one of us…” Superior Mother wanted to bash her assistant’s head in. She seemed more like a conjugal twin lately than a shadow. It was too close for Superior Mother to handle. It seemed her assistant was more her than herself, and that would not stand—that would not last.

  “They call them Originals. The purest form of us. She is us. You can go now. Have the rest of the day off. Do as you please.” The assistant nodded looking overly prim at the suggestion that she get lost. This gave Superior Mother a small tickle of satisfaction.

  Teresa was in a bubble. It felt like a bubble. Her eyes would open, and she would focus for a minute on where she was. It was a bubble, maybe glass. She floated in the middle—the air was flat and chilled, as if they were preserving her.

  Moving her arms, Teresa could see there were tubes up and down her limbs. Moving her hands over her body, she could feel the tubes—one by her lungs, two on her back, one below her belly button, several on her legs. Liquid poured from every tube, and they looked to be embedded in her skin. How could she pull them out without pulling out a chunk of her with them? Teresa looked down at her belly; it was covered in scars. Scars that weren’t there before.

  She was floating, but trying to move couldn’t happen. If she moved her legs, the tubes tugged. If she tried to straighten her back, she felt as if she would tumble forwards. When Teresa tried to scream, she became aware of the tubes shoved down her nose into her throat. Looking out of the bubble, there were monitors, computers, and no one to be seen. Machines surrounded her bubble, blocking a view she could have had of a door, a way out. Teresa scrapped her fingers across the bubble. It felt like plastic, but looked like glass.

  Then, there was a face looking back at her. Small and grey with eyes that did not blink, but wrapped around its head. It nodded at Teresa, then spoke, “Sleep.”

  Stainless Steel

  Women of the Grey Book 3

  Superior Mother

  Superior Mother watched the Women of the Grey flit about her. Lately they were nervous and had been acting flighty. They were as quick as birds to jump around squawking at the slightest provocation. It annoyed Superior Mother to watch them, but she was well aware that their unusual behaviors had developed under her watchful eye.

  Superior Mother now had the question of ruin on her hands. Had she ruined the Women of the Grey? Women who once stood straight as a wall, were cool tempered, and behaved proudly. All that was once palatably graceful about them was gone. Superior Mother didn’t want to believe she had made nervous Nellies of them all.

  Admittedly, there were times that this edgy feeling amongst the Women of the Grey was in her best interest. They were scared of her. Their nervous nature bred a fear in them that could possibly squash any defiance that might be lingering in The Grey’s halls. Treachery against their leader might slip off the tongues to each other. Superior Mother believed that somewhere in the horde there could be a mother lustful to take over her reign, because of this she never stopped watching her own back.

  Long ago she, Superior Mother herself had defiance on her mind as well. Self-absorbed ideas of mutiny filled her head day in and day out, until she had put the previous Superior Mother to bed, nicely tucked in with a pat and well wishes. Was that a foolish thing to do? She wondered that now when the ring’s ice bit her finger raw. Superior Mother got the power she craved and now spent her days watching and wondering. In this time of turmoil, would the Women of the Grey, turn on her and each other?

  Now, standing in the lead, Superior Mother could not let herself fold. She must tend to these birds.

  Mother Angela was Superior Mothers new assistant. She was the quiet organized type, the kind you’d find knitting on a Saturday afternoon, sticking her toes in the
sun, giving passersby sly smiles. Superior Mother chose her because she believed that Angela was the least ambitious of them all. Her nature was mild, as if she only wanted a cup of hot tea and a book in life.

  Angela nodded to Superior Mother intending the meeting could start. A large group of mothers gathered at this open meeting. Superior Mother had purposely said this meeting was open to all. She wanted her little birds to come hear what is said. Come see that your leader is still ruler. She wanted to sprinkle a fairy dust of terror in them. Keep them behaving and in line.

  Straightening her back while her eyes darted around the room, Superior Mother posed her question aloud.

  “How many of our Mothers have gone missing?”

  She knew the answer, but needed it said aloud for all to hear.

  “Five, Superior Mother, including Lisa.” Her assistant answered her on cue, then sat down. Her response spit at Superior Mother. She had told her assistant to never say Lisa’s name out loud. Lisa was now the most wanted of her kind. To hear the hiss from the Women of the Grey, to feel the tension at the mere mention of Lisa’s name, was painful to Superior Mother. Lisa was flesh of her flesh, although no one but she knew this.

  Lisa was a daughter she never got to hold dear. She was an infant when Superior Mother did what all Women of the Grey do. She handed Lisa over to The Grey without a word of protest or a show of anger.

  Superior Mother waited for the room to quiet, mentally noting that if this assistant had another outburst, if she showed another tiny hint of personality or thoughts of her own, she’d have her tucked in. There was no room or time to question her motives. Quickly gathering her thoughts, Superior Mother unclenched her throat and spoke fluidly, with a small smile on her face.

  “I have, my dear ladies, not one answer for you on where these women are. There are no bodies. There is no evidence of foul play. There is only a void left behind, an empty space where answers are needed.”

  The women in the room nodded at each other. Some mothers snuck others looks, as if they could read between the lines. Superior Mother noticed the looks and ignored them, not bothering to wonder what they meant to this endless line of cunts that were The Women of the Grey. To Superior Mother, they were an exhausting bunch of naysayers, or followers. It was never more or less than that.

  Stepping forward to stand next to Superior Mother was June. She was a favorite of Superior Mother. June’s lust for violence and taking heads on command had earned her a place at Superior Mother’s side. When June entered a room, there was a sparkle in Superior Mother’s eyes. A sparkle that her assistant took note of every single time.

  June was the closest The Women of the Grey had come in years to the original nature of their kind and this gave Superior Mother a thrill. Another had come too close to the savage nature of the true original Women of the Grey. Superior Mother had no choice but to lock that one up.

  Superior Mother did tread carefully with June. June cleared rooms when she entered. Most mothers believed June unstable. She was a bit too greedy, too cutthroat, and everyone wondered whose throat was next.

  Raising her eyebrows, Superior Mother glanced over at June and then back to the room.

  All of June’s unstable behavior that the other Mothers found so offensive was in truth nothing more than traits of the first Women of the Grey who had come to Earth. Beastly in thoughts and actions, the first Women of the Grey came to Earth only to breed, having killed off the males of their race, facing extinction. They chose Earth because its males were physically compatible.

  Over time, the savage nature of the Originals was diluted, tempered by human DNA. “Now,” Superior Mother thought, “we have these waste products.” Nothing valuable of their kind in them; nothing human worth saving either.

  Superior Mother cleared her throat and the room quickly quieted.

  “Since we must remain secret and hidden from most human eyes, we have our laws. Only one of us, in one town, every 10 years. There must never be any deviation from this. We must not allow our want of the outside world to tempt us to walk out in the open, for all to see.”

  Grumbling began in the room. Many mothers had not been outside The Grey in years. Waiting “their” turn peacefully was becoming a difficult concept.

  Looking from side to side, Superior Mother ran her tongue over her lips and casually waved her hand toward June. “For this reason, I am sending June on her own to hunt down Lisa. I believe Lisa is the cause of our women disappearing.”

  Silence blanketed the room. None could argue Superior Mother’s point. They all believed that Lisa was the cause of all their sorrow. Lisa was the one that had led them to this point of nervously looking over their shoulders.

  Their hatred blinded them. When Superior Mother had mentioned the need for privacy, the looks of disapproval and whispers started, as she knew they would. That is when Superior Mother distracted them with a common bond — the hate the Women of the Grey had for Lisa.

  The room took the bait. They were lingering in their hate of Lisa, forgetting that they would probably never see the outside world. How could they? The rules were strict, and there was too many of them now. They were like cockroaches climbing the walls. Often Superior Mother wished she could stomp some dead.

  Superior Mother had many well-planned smoke and mirrors tricks. It always surprised her that they all seemed to fall for it. Every single time.

  Standing in the silence, Superior Mother breathed it in. For once it was quiet. The silence was a delicious thing to have hold of. Making sure to look many mothers directly in the eye, Superior Mother nodded and spoke again.

  “June will leave tomorrow and report all findings to me….” Superior Mother abruptly stopped there and sat. She had more to say, but why bother? All that was said was always distorted and tossed about like a ball. Truth never seemed to last long in the gossip of The Grey.

  Without a cue, her assistant stood up and clapped her hands, signaling for all to leave. June, who seemed to never linger, locked eyes with her leader and placed one of her hands on the table, dragging her fingers behind her as she walked out of the room. It was such actions that made Superior Mother believe she had chosen the best of them all to be her henchman.

  Rubbing her finger tips against the stainless-steel table that Teresa lay on, Superior Mother looked down at the girl. Teresa was ragged, used up like chewed bubble gum. Superior Mother shook her head. She kept rubbing her fingertips against the table, trying to calm herself.

  A roar was developing deep within her. She wanted to bash heads and release this girl, but Superior Mother smothered the roar. She knew better than to overstep her boundaries with the Originals.

  Watching what the Originals had done, and continued to do, to Teresa made Superior Mother uneasy. The fear that she could easily be slapped up on a table like this, stripped of her ring and power by these mothers, was very real. Should she speak up, demand the release of this girl? She might end up the replacement.

  “Must we continue?” Teresa has been opened and viewed again and again. They had found nothing conclusive. What was the point of all this?

  The Women of the Grey were thin, but Teresa was now skeletal. Almost mummified. She was nothing more than skin on bone. There was no meat to her. How could they find answers in something that was mostly a corpse? But Superior Mother checked her attitude and spoke.

  “Is there nothing to explain why she is barren?” For all of Superior Mother’s pride, she asked this question with a pinch of nerves in her tone. She would never show that she was scared of the Original mothers, these mothers that stayed in the depths of the grey, always in their Original forms. They were silent, working and observing, and allowing whatever happened upstairs to proceed without a care.

  Superior Mother wasn’t sure if that was true. Maybe they watched more than they let on. The Original mothers might care a great deal. She wasn’t sure. Inwardly hushing herself, Superior Mother waited for their answer. The Original mothers rarely spoke they used telepathy
to speak to one another, a gift the rest of The Grey did not possess.

  That was not entirely true, but Superior Mother would not divulge that. She had been able to tune into Lisa since she was a child. It was never clear messages, but scattered thoughts and a sense of anger or despair. Often Superior Mother heard the other mothers’ thoughts before they spoke. She knew Teresa was well aware of what was being done to her.

  “We must,” is all Superior Mother heard in unison from the two Mothers who stood at the stainless-steel table.

  Superior Mother ran her fingers across the table to Teresa’s fingers. She sensed that Teresa was not still, not vacant, although she appeared deathlike. The mothers claimed she was not aware of what was done to her. That couldn’t be true. She was in there, banging on the doors, trying to break the windows. Teresa wanted out, and Superior Mother felt the pain in Teresa’s fingers, noticed how they pushed into the table.

  “Back to the Unit, then…” Superior Mother forced a smile and felt every ounce the villain, her words condemning Teresa to more gashes and prods from the Original mothers.

  Turning to leave, Superior Mother thought she heard Teresa’s scream. A scream that came from the inside of Teresa. It was a silent scream, but the loudest she had ever heard. Superior Mother joined Teresa; she screamed as well, a soundless inner yowling from the ring to the core of who she was.

  Superior Mother was a leader who sent a hunter out to find her daughter. She was a leader who tortured her own kind. This was one of those times that Superior Mother wanted to take her ring off, swallow it, and let the ring freeze her from the inside. The ring would become nothing more than a block of ice that shattered her core. It would be a deserved death, Superior Mother thought. A death a leader like she deserves.

  Superior Mother believed she had earned such pain for holding the secrets of The Grey so firmly to her breast.